Although I had carried some leadership responsibilities on the mission field during the 23 years we served overseas, becoming president of the Foreign Mission Board (as we were still called) in 1993 was a challenging leap. I still feel like a novice after 17 years of leading an SBC entity and the largest missionary-sending organization in the world.
I had always been reluctant to move into each sequence of expanded leadership responsibility. Nothing could be more fulfilling than the church planting assignment we had among people who did not know our Savior. To be the first to share the good news with those who had never heard, and to see lives changed and churches begun…well, it just doesn’t get any better than that! After all, this is what God called us to do many years ago.
Why would one leave that to work with other missionaries and take on a burden of responsibility for something over which they have no control? If leadership is about status, power and reputation, I guarantee you, it is not worth it! Often in times of disappointment, criticism or personal attacks I have come to the point of saying, “I don’t have to put up with this; I’m out of here.” But invariably there is a still, small voice that says, “No you’re not.”
Somewhere along the way I learned obedience to wherever God chose to lead me and to whatever He called me to do. It made no sense to me to be placed in a leadership role for which I was unqualified and ill-equipped, but it has always been evident that I wouldn’t be in this position had it not been for divine manipulation of the process. My wife’s perception is unequivocal in that leadership roles have continued to be a series of demotions from the highest call of personal involvement in cutting edge ministry in order to serve others.
I had to become reconciled to the fact that my greatest kingdom impact was not what I alone might be able to do, but what I could do in guiding, equipping, facilitating and resourcing others to be more effective. The challenges have been formidable, but the rewards have more than offset the constant travel and speaking, consuming administrative burdens and occasional adversities. God has been faithful to lend us His grace and sustain us in the journey.
I have learned the difficult lesson that with responsibility and empowerment goes accountability. Leadership means being blamed for what you would have been against if you had known about it! It means being responsible for things over which you have no control. It demands comprehensive knowledge about an incredible scope of issues from strategy, personnel management, finance, and technology to public relationship, current events and global trends. It entails learning the appropriate mix of group decision-making and personal initiative and the balance between humility and self-confidence.
A few years ago we sought to identify the primary characteristics of leadership needed at every level for our global mission task. This included aspects such as dynamic spirituality, ethics and integrity, global mission thinker, quality decision-maker, effective team builder, priority setting, motivator, problem-solver, conflict manager, and visionary. Not every leader would be strong in every area, but deficiencies provide opportunities for growth and development and for God to be glorified in making up for what we lack.
In my personal reflections I have concluded there are three essential leadership characteristics if an organization, or church for that matter, is to grow and be successful.
The first is vision. A leader must be a visionary that sees the desired result—that image of the future toward which we are striving. A visionary leader doesn’t seek to manage current realities but sees what is not yet a reality and asks, “Why not?” The IMB has truly become a vision-driven organization. We know there one day will be a multitude that no one can count from every tribe, people, language and nation represented around the throne of God, and we can settle for nothing less. We are driven to see that vision become a reality.
A second characteristic is focus. A leader must be a strategic thinker who understands cause and effect. He doesn’t manage and direct work for whatever may result, but has insight in how to get from point A to point B, how to move from the current reality toward what is yet to be. The leadership comes in keeping many team members and the entire organization focused on what gets it to where it intends to go. Inertia is vicious, and many good things come along that would create diversion from the direction that produces results.
A third characteristic is passion. One is a leader only as others follow. A leader must communicate so that others understand what they are to do and why. But if a leader is to inspire and motivate others, his communication must be with a passion that is personal and authentic. It has been inspiring to me to see that passion in a “whatever it takes” commitment to our mission task among our missionaries, staff and a growing number of church partners.
I am more mindful of mistakes and failures than successes and wish my giftedness in these areas had been stronger than they were. It is humbling to realize that God has chosen to bless us anyway, and along the way He has allowed me and our leadership team to serve Southern Baptists and to move us closer to that vision being fulfilled of reaching a lost world.
Thank you for your example of faithfulness and leadership, even when it hasn’t been the easiest route to take. I am one (among many) who has been blessed and positively affected.
Dr. Rankin,
Great insight on Leadership. I will take these words to heart.
(It sounds a little like Mark Conard may be our next President! Just joking, Mark.)
Dr. Rankin,
Point #2 in your blog post comments raises the questions of “experience” which you did not mention specifically but which I conclude is a vital aspect of leadership and is inferred in this point. It would be difficult to anticipate “cause and effect” if one had no experience in the strategies and state of the forces and issues relative to their assignment.
It also seems that in today’s Southern Baptist mission culture there are two primary considerations that demand the attention of the IMB President:
1. The strategy to inject the Gospel into international cultures in such a way as to effectively lead those peoples into the Kingdom of God.
2. The strategy to enlist and keep engaged the thousands of Southern Baptist churches in the SBC/IMB missions’ project.
If the new President has a long history of being an active international missionary he will be weaker in functioning to address Item #2 above.
If the new President has a long history of serving as a pastor or SBC institutional leader in the US he will be weaker in addressing those aspects relative to Item #1.
Seems to me that the selection of the next IMB President will be a statement of where the primary priority of our SBC leadership lies, either in addressing the cultures of those we are seeking to reach with the Gospel or in focusing on a strategy to activate our domestic SBC church members.
Of course, the President will address both of these aspects but his effectiveness in either will be influenced the most by his experience and influence in the environments of his most recent past service.
Example: If I was given the leadership position of a mega-church or seminary I would make a mess of things. If I was given the position of IMB President I would make a mess of things too, but I would have a better understanding of what I was messing up.
Which way do you think it will go? I’m not trying to trap you into giving away secrets about who may be chosen next. Well, maybe a little. Ha, ha.
Vision, Focus, and Passion are all good and necessary but only when they are directed by obedience tempered by humbleness. Open the Book….read It….do what It says. We make more mistakes in leadership when we start to interject our will, wants, and desires while often getting further away from His plan.